The edition of The Catholic Witness you’re currently holding marks the close of one chapter and the opening of another in the newspaper’s 54-year history. Beginning May 11, The Witness will be produced in a digital-only format, featuring an eye-catching new website and an enhanced weekly e-mail.
On our digital platforms, you can expect to see the news articles, feature stories, photos and columns that you’ve come to enjoy, including feel-good stories from Diocesan parishes, inspiring photos capturing the life of the Diocesan Church, the celebration of Catholic education and vocations, and the good works of Diocesan ministries made possible by your support.
The news will come with a new flair, combining written stories with photos, graphics and videos that reflect a lively and active Diocesan Church.
We will also continue our regular columns, such as The Called, Musings of a Catholic Evangelist by Sister Geralyn, Saint Spotlight, the Notebook page of upcoming events, and Parish Obituaries.
The digital world allows us to offer expansive news and features beyond a 16-page limit, so we’ll be adding new features and topics along the way. For starters, these will include Pennsylvania Catholic Conference reports from the state capitol, news from the Vatican, and features on people, places and artifacts from Diocesan history.
From there, The Witness will continue to grow and expand further content, bringing you news in a more up-to-date fashion.
The decision to move to a digital-only format and temporarily suspend the printed version was not an easy one, nor did it come without a sense of disappointment and loss. Simply put, our printing and postage costs cannot be sustained with the loss of revenue to parishes and the Diocese from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
We would be remiss if we did not address the readers who have come to rely on the printed editions of The Witness, especially the elderly or those who don’t have access to the internet and the social media world. Know that we will examine options for distribution of a monthly printed newsletter to help keep you connected to news from the Diocese. In the meantime, we encourage recipients of our weekly e-mail to print and share the digital editions with relatives or friends who don’t have internet access.
We turn to this new chapter in the history of The Catholic Witness and invite you to join us as we present news and features in a new and exciting way, and introduce new elements in our digital ventures. See the accompanying ad to sign up.
Thank you for your continued support, and God bless you.
By Jen Reed, The Catholic Witness
